When taking up the helm of a fashion house, offering a compelling proposal through clothing is, obviously, pretty key to successfully pulling off the job. What is perhaps an even more crucial part of the formula, though, is creating a must-have bag. 10 years ago, we received a collective reminder of this elemental law when, less than a year into his now canonised tenure at the head of Loewe, Jonathan Anderson debuted what is regarded as one of the most ingeniously off-kilter It-bags out there: the Loewe Puzzle.
First spotted on Loewe’s spring/summer 2015 men’s runway, initially as an underarm clutch, the cuboidal assemblage of geometric leather panels adopted its more familiar, top-handled form in Anderson’s first womenswear runway show for the house later that season. Its launch was something of a big deal, not just for the fact that it was the designer’s first major accessories proposal – it was also the first new bag design from the Spanish leather goods house since the 1980s, with the Puzzle referencing archival gems like the Origami bag, a supple leather tote that paid homage to the Japanese art of paper folding.
Almost as soon as it landed, the Puzzle’s zany appeal cemented it as an instant street style fave – Anna Dello Russo was one of its earliest adopters, regularly spotted with the original iteration composed of gradient pink panels, while Sienna Miller was soon after seen carrying one in mint green. Beyoncé’s penchant for the Puzzle – proven when, in 2016, she showed up to a basketball game in LA with one in the crook of her elbow – helped to cement its status as an It-bag to end them all.
The rest, as you know, is history, with the bag quickly becoming one of the most fawned-over accessories of the past decade, garnering a litany of A-list superfans. Members of the Puzzle cult have included Julianne Moore, Céline Dion and the late Dame Maggie Smith – who broke the internet when she was snapped by Juergen Teller for Loewe’s spring/summer 2024 pre-collection campaign, a deep olive green version of the boxy purse in her grasp.
Beyond its status as a celebrity favourite, though, the Puzzle bag has also served as a handy canvas for Jonathan Anderson’s agenda-setting creative vision for Loewe. Chiming with the 10th anniversary of the bag’s release, a capsule collection of re-editions of some of the most iconic Puzzles of the past decade (and an exclusive new edition to toast the occasion), commemorates the accessory’s proud legacy.
Amid the edit, you’ll find editions that remind us of Anderson’s status as one of fashion’s great art aficionados – homages to British Arts & Crafts movement pioneers William Morris and William de Morgan, and collaborations with the estates of Joe Brainard and Ken Price among them, with the latter two’s works translated in painstaking leather intarsia. There are also Puzzles that reflect some of the designer’s punchiest collections – his spring/summer 2023 collection, widely acclaimed for the glitched-out, pixelated trompe l’oeil motifs that figured across ready-to-wear pieces and accessories, as a case in point – as well as bags that pay tribute to Loewe’s longstanding partnerships with the likes of Paula’s Ibiza – the fêted Balearic boutique.
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